Chris SweetIACRL 2008

1831 Failed in Business

1832 Defeated for Legislature

1833 Second Business Failure

1836 Nervous Breakdown

1838 Defeated for Speaker

1840 Defeated for Elector

1843 Defeated for Congress

1848 Defeated for Congress

1855 Defeated for Senate

1856 Defeated for Vice President

1858 Defeated for Senate

Fired from the Grand Ole Opry after only one performance and told by the manager, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. Better get y’all job back drivin’ a truck.”

Got fired from a reporting job and was told, “You’re not fit for TV.”

Libraries are changing rapidly

Useful, productive change does not come easy

Innovation is an important aspect of change

In 2007 Toyota overtook GM in Global sales (we’ll get back to this)

My background and research in this area

Many perspectives

Concept of “Failing Forward”

Learning from successful companies

Gamers

Nurturing Failure

Safeguarding Success

“I think the whole concept of success and failure needs to be re-thought. We’re such a success-oriented culture, but I think what we need is more failure. Improvements only happen when you try things differently.”

-Richard Farson, author of Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins.

“Relying on conventional, outmoded ideas about success and failure stands in the way of your ability to innovate, compete, and stay ahead of the curve in a changing economy.” (Farson).

We need to redefine success and failure.

The win at all costs mentality is ingrained in our culture (but not all cultures).

Consider:

Steroid use in Sports Insider Trading Student suicide rates Grade Inflation War?

“I’ve missed more than nine thousand shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” -Michael Jordan

GM’s manufacturing model worked well for so long, why change it? Well………

Success also inhibits innovation (we NEED innovation!)

We learn more from our mistakes than our successes.

“The Toyota Way” guidelines are influenced by Buddhist principles.

Manage as if you “have no power”.(taken from samurai teachings).

“Toyota’s culture readily accepts that the greatest companies are also flawed companies that routinely make mistakes. At Toyota, imperfections are not overlooked or avoided, but treated with reverence and attention and openly acknowledged as highly important”

How Toyota Became #1

“…the culture at Ford”, said top executive Mark Fields, “has been one of equating a request for help with weakness. Directives come down from on-high, and lower-level employees are simply expected to do their jobs, no questions asked.”

Post-It note story!

3M estimates that 60% of it’s formal product launches fail!

11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not kill a new product idea”

30% off all new products should not have existed in any form 4 years earlier!

Carefully cultivated culture that is highly tolerant of risk and failure

Six Sigma- set of management techniques developed by Motorola to decrease production defects and increase efficiency.

James McNerney comes from GE and implements 6 sigma at 3M in 2000

Initial bottom line success traded for long-term sustainability that depended on innovation.

R&D: “We all came to the conclusion that there was no way in the world that anything like the Post-It note would ever emerge from this new system.”

Lack of new ideas and inventions leads to a roll-back of Six Sigma principles.

“We feel like we can dream again.”

New Coke replaced Coke Classic for 79 days in 1985!

Public outcry brings back Coke Classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4YvmN1hvNA

Chairman and CEO Neville Isdell at a recent annual meeting: Innovation is vital “You will see some failures. As we take more risks, this is something we must accept as part of the regeneration process.”

America’s top design firm

Client list includes: NASA, Crest,

HP, AT&T, Samsung

Nightline “Deep Dive” feature.

Create a culture of Enlightened Trial and Error: “Strike out fear of failure and build a culture that allows it. Reward success and failure equally- punish inactivity.”

(Water bottle example)

“Attitudes toward success and failure are a fault line dividing generations. These new workers realize –as a few thoughtful people always have- that pursuing success is like chasing the horizon, and that failure is an integral part of an interesting life.”

Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins

“…video games create what the psychologist Eric Erickson has called a psychosocial moratorium-that is, a learning space in which the learner can take risks where real-world consequences are lowered. After all, you can save the game and start back at the save point when you fail”

What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Literacy and Learning

Important implications for managing millenials (student workers)

It’s not only the gamers that have begun to internalize these ideas: active learning styles

They see mistakes as a natural part of the process

Gamers make good problem solvers?

They don’t like manuals and detailed procedures

Learn new applications/software quickly

Can be good innovators IF allowed some failures

Failing Backward Failing Forward

Blaming others Taking responsibility

Repeating the same mistakes Learning from each mistake

Expecting never to fail again Knowing failure is part of progress

Expecting to fail continually Making a positive attitude

Accepting tradition blindly Challenging outdated assumptions

Being limited by past mistakes Taking new risks

Thinking I am a failure Believing something just didn’t work

Quitting PerseveringFrom: Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for SuccessBy: John Maxwell

Cultivate a risk and failure tolerant culture

(A 1989 study of 114 interns and residents … found that almost half of the physicians-in-training neither informed nor discussed their most serious errors with their supervising doctors.)

Learn from IDEO: Hire a diverse staff and create diverse inter-departmental teams (including students) for important projects.

Encourage wild ideas during brainstorming sessions.

Spend more time listening (“Manage as if you have no power”)

Consider the implications of the gamer culture

Try new things (but don’t stop assessing)

Have more fun in the library! There’s a reason people ride scooters around Google’s offices!

Openly acknowledge and examine failures to see what can be learned.

To encourage innovation practice “Zen Mind”. Beginner’s mind is the open mind, the attitude that includes both doubt and possibility, the ability to see things always as fresh and new.

“Encouragement of failure doesn’t mean the abandonment of supervision, quality control, or respect for sound practices” (Richard Farson)

Whatever new and innovative ideas you try, don’t stop assessing. Give it a chance, but show me the data!

Practice Enlightened Trial and Error: “A half-hearted, careless effort with lame results is inexcusable. A deliberate, well-thought-out effort that didn’t succeed isn’t. That type of failure is not only excusable, but desirable.” (Farson)

Mistakes are acceptable, repeating them is not.

All workplaces need innovators and worker bees. Clearly identify who is who.

Don’t start nurturing failure without buy-in from the higher-ups (if not buy-in, at least be sure they are thoroughly informed!)

Continue to require documented progress on projects.

On the contrary, I think it is incredibly realistic.

We all make mistakes. No one succeeds 100% of the time.

Isn’t the idea of 100% success, win at all costs idealistic?